Is a vote for the Liberal Democrats a wasted one?

The general election is just around the corner, and with it the decision over which political party we want to govern our country for the next few years. But to say this year’s election will be a tricky decision for some would be an understatement.

The Conservative party, who are in power at the moment with the currently unelected Theresa May as Prime Minister, undoubtedly has a lot of support. But the party also has a lot of people conspiring against it – particularly in relation to their ‘Hard Brexit’ approach and their reluctance to target corporations when it comes to tax - and it’s for this reason the concept of tactical voting has become so prevalent in this election.

Both current Prime Minister Theresa May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn divide opinion.

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Spreadsheets are circulating around social media advising people on which party to vote for based on their constituency in order to boot the Tories out, and websites exist for students to work out whether they’re better off voting from their home address constituency or their university one, so as to make it count more.

In fact, a poll carried out by the Electoral Reform Society indicates that 1 in 5 people – or 20% of the voting population - are planning to vote tactically in the upcoming election; a notable rise from the 9% who said in 2015 that their vote would be a tactical one.

But along with this idea of tactical voting also comes the concept of a ‘wasted vote’. It’s widely been touted that a vote for any party other than the main two – Conservative and Labour – will have no impact in the final result and is therefore pointless; and this is something that has continuously cropped up where the Lib Dems are concerned.

The Lib Dems’ rise and fall

As the ‘third party’ in British politics, the Liberal Democrats have always trailed behind Labour and the Tories in terms of votes and seats in Parliament. But a surge of success in the 2010 election saw them enter into a coalition with the Tory government. This, as it turned out, was something of a mistake; the views of the two governing parties were poles apart, especially where the Lib Dems’ key promise not to raise university tuition fees was concerned, and when the fees were tripled in 2012 there was widespread feeling among many of their voters that the party had let people down.

Former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg with former Prime Minister David Cameron on their first day as a coalition government in May 2010.

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As a result, when the 2015 election rolled around, the Lib Dems lost a load of seats in parliament and a whole lot more trust from their followers.

But here we are now, in 2017. With a large section of the voting population being adamant they don’t want the Tories getting back in, and with others feeling like the cracks in the Labour party surrounding their divisive leader Jeremy Corbyn make them too risky to elect, some people are looking back to the Liberal Democrats for an answer.

Is there such a thing as a wasted vote, or is the only wasted vote one that isn’t cast at all?

This, however, is frequently met with a suggestion that a vote for the Lib Dems would be a wasted one because they’ll ‘never get in’. But this strikes me as an interesting point of view; isthere such a thing as a wasted vote, or is the only wasted vote one that isn’t cast at all?

Kat Quinzell, 33, from Wales, certainly thinks the former. “I’ve been a staunch Lib Dem supporter for quite a while. I liked that they were keen on education and they seemed to be all about the right things,” she told us. “But for me [this time], there’s no point voting Lib Dem because they’re not going to get in. My vote really doesn’t mean anything.”

And she's certainly not the only one who feels that way.

Lib dem won't win. To vote them would be a wasted vote if you want #Toriesout

“If I knew that my vote would count as a single vote for a single candidate, then I would vote Lib Dem,” said Kat. “But because [it won’t] and I don’t think enough people will vote Lib Dem to give them any kind of power, [it’s pointless]. I can’t influence that party becoming elected, but maybe I can influence the lesser of the other two evils getting in,” she explained, referencing her intended vote for Labour.

First Past the Post

And Kat does make a valid point; the current state of the UK’s voting system makes it exceedingly difficult for anyone bar the leading two parties to get elected.

As it stands, we adhere to the ‘First-Past-the-Post’ rule where voting is concerned. This means, in simple terms, that each of the country's 650 constituencies vote for a single MP who assumes a seat in parliament representing their party. If one political party succeeds in getting 326 seats or more - over half of all available seats - they win the election. If they don’t reach this majority, it’s known as a ‘hung parliament’ and that’s when coalition governments with multiple parties come into play.

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But there’s a major flaw in this system where many are concerned. A flaw so big, the Electoral Reform Society (which states its intention as “building a better democracy”) has deemed First Past the Post “the worst system for electing a representative government.”

To illustrate the major issue with the voting system, let’s imagine for a moment that we no longer have the traditional political parties of Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem, but that we instead have three key emoji parties: the Dancing Ladies, the Running Men, and the Pizza Party. What a world that would be.

As you can see in the below graph, in constituency A, the Pizza Party have a runaway lead (naturally). In constituency B, which clearly has less voters; the Running Men came out on top.

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But here’s the issue. What about all the votes the Dancing Ladies received in constituency A? As the graph demonstrates, the Dancing Ladies in fact received more votes coming second in Constituency A than the Running Men did who won the seat in constituency B. Yet all those votes for the Dancing Ladies - as well all the others depicted in black and white below - become completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of the election, simply because they didn’t come first place in their constituency.

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The First Past The Post system means that a political party could have thousands upon thousands of votes, but down to luck of the draw in terms of where in the country these voters are located, they could win hardly any constituencies, and have hardly any chance of ever getting into government. If you look at it like this, the Electoral Reform Society reports that 74.4% of votes cast in the 2015 general election were essentially redundant for this exact reason. That’s a staggering number of voices that effectively aren’t heard.

I would vote labour but because of the voting system it would be a wasted vote, I need to choose between SNP and Lib Dem for my constituency

A vote for something different

Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, told Cosmopolitan it’s this democratic flaw in the voting system which prevents new parties with alternative policies and new perspectives from standing a chance of ever getting anywhere – and the idea of a vote for anyone aside Labour and Tory being a wasted one only plays into this.

“Labour and Conservative are a vote for the same thing”, he said. Instead, Farron believes his party would bring something new to the table, politically speaking. “A vote for the Liberal Democrats is the only way of voting for something different,” he told Cosmopolitan. “We will add a penny on income tax so we have a properly funded NHS and social care service, and we will give the public, not politicians, the final say on the Brexit deal."

You may or may not agree with Farron's politics, but it's hard to disagree with his recognition that due to the current voting system, it’s harder for the Lib Dems to get a chance at having a go. And the Green Party and all the other non-major parties in the UK are in exactly the same position. Is that completely democratic? It's arguable.

Tim Farron, Lib Dem leader

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Tim Farron points to the recent Presidential election in France, where Macron – a candidate who had no support from either of the country’s two major political parties – actually ended up winning the election, to demonstrate how an alternative, arguably more democratic voting system allows for new political perspectives to come through and lead.

“Political systems around the world are being shaken up,” he said. “The two main parties in France came third and fifth at the recent elections. It’s time for people in Britain to vote for what they believe in, so they get what they want."

Positive politics

And the notion of people voting for what they want is exactly why many people believe there's nosuch thing as a wasted vote. 38-year-old university lecturer Katherine feels this passionately, and encourages voters to steer clear of voting tactically based on what they don’t want, opting instead to vote for the party whose policies theybelieve in most. It’s a term she calls ‘positive politics’.

We can vote tactically if we like, but then we just end up with the least worst solution

“The reason I don’t think there’s such a thing as a wasted vote is because I believe we get the politicians we deserve, and therefore we should vote according to our principals rather than according to tactical decision-making,” she told Cosmopolitan.

“We can vote tactically if we like,” she says, “but then we just end up with the least worst solution rather than a positive, enthusiastic future."

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With just hours to go until the election, you might still be undecided about who you want to vote for. But when making this decision, is it a good idea from a democratic perspective to be swayed away from the party whose policies your beliefs most closely align with, simply out of fear they won’t get elected? I personally don’t think so.

I don't think that's what elections were intended to be based on, and I believe it hinders democracy to vote tactically rather than for who and what you actually believe in - whether that's the Liberal Democrats or any other political party, big or small.

Lib Dem MP for Richmond Park, Sarah Olney - who was one of the many Lib Dems who won her seat in a surprise by-election result after the last general election - seems to agree.

"If everyone voted the way they genuinely wanted to, we may well find we have a very different outcome in future elections," she told Cosmopolitan. "Don't be a sheep and follow the crowd - vote the way you want to."

Of course, many will argue this is far too idealistic a point of view. Voting positively doesn't change the unfortunate fact of our First Past the Post system, which leaves those desperate to avoid another Tory government with no other option than to vote tactically.

But let's remember that all votes cast count for something. And until we see any kind of electoral reform, isn't it preferable to fight for positive change by voting for what we actually believe in?

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